I sweat it out, because I eat. I eat, because I love to.

Ladies, have no fear…| REBLOG: The 10:1 Ratio

Lifting does not make women bulky. It doesn’t, it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

Today’s post is simple. And it has been written about a million times over. You are working your butt off at the gym day in a day out, but you aren’t seeing the results. You are pushing more miles, but the scale isn’t going down. And that may be your first problem. First rule of thumb: step away from the scale. Second rule of thumb: buy a journal. But most importantly, don’t be afraid to lift those weights.

Jamie Eason wrote a great piece for Move Nourish Believe last month about all of this–10 REASONS WHY YOUR WORKOUT ISN’T WORKING. You are doing too much cardio. You aren’t paying attention to your diet. You aren’t mixing up your workouts and routines. And you are afraid of the weight room. Do you relate to any of those? Then there are changes that you can be making…and they aren’t that hard! First, walk tall with confidence…and then leave your fears at the door.

The post below is great about overcoming the male:female ratio at the gym. It is intimidating where there are 10 guys and 1 lone girl by all of the weights, isn’t it? Well…it shouldn’t be. Nicole was freaked out some of her first times in massive, male-driven gyms–and she is a fitness coach. But the insight she found when she overcame those fears is what is key:

“Fast Forward to the Present:I enter the weight room without a second thought, do my thing and embrace the strength I have worked extremely hard for this summer … I think there is a huge misconceptionabout weight training that causes women to avoid the weight room and stick to the cardio equipment. Weight Training does not make women get “bulky,” it will actually do the opposite. Weight training allows muscle to grow and create lean mass that will burn more calories/fat in the body through out the day for men and women. The only way women get “bulky” when lifting or in general is if they eat an excess of calories and food. Men TRY/WANT to gain muscle mass when they lift, so they willconsume a lot more food throughout the day for a purpose of gaining.”

She is exactly right. And it only reiterates what Jamie Eason says about focusing on your diet and mixing up your workouts. If you are not researching the science behind how your body works, you will never get the results that you want. And the science is that lifting leans our muscle mass and actually burns more fat calories than straight cardio. But none of that will happen if you aren’t putting the right calories into your body too.

It all seems like alot more (and alot harder) than it really is. But once you get through the fears and build up enough confidence to make the fitness and diet changes, go back to those initial rules of thumb. Instead of focusing on the scale, focus on measurements. For example, take your bodily measurements AND get on the scale on Monday mornings only. It holds you accountable for those fun-filled and lazy weekends AND it keeps you from obsessing over the number on the scale. JOURNAL EVERYTHING. Record your weight and measurements…and I know it is hard, but record every tiny bit of food that crosses your lips. Once you make a habit of journaling, you can focus more on your calories in and calories out. What you burn only counts if you are paying attention to what you put it. Bottom line.

So the weight roomat LA Fitness has become a “new home” for me this summer, and one thing I can’t help but notice when I go in there is the 10:1 ratio.What’s that?It’s the guy to girl ratio in that area of the gym. Now, I can’t say I’ve alwaysbeen comfortable being one of the few girls in there…

SHORT STORY–>Earlier this year I decided to go to the awesome weight room in the SRSC at Indiana University because I wanted to use the pull up bar bands (if they had any, I didn’t check)since my gym in Briscoe didn’t have any. Once I finallyfound the room, (the place is three stories, I looked a bit lost and out of my element) I took a lap and ran back to my gym….never in my life had I feltSO intimidated in…